The GRASP Center at Tufts University Health Science campus and the New England Medical Center Hospital, entering its fifth year of operation, supports basic research in digestive diseases. During the Center's first four years, there have been a number of scientific accomplishments particularly in the areas of GI hormones, transport, pathogenic microbiology and hepatic physiology. The forty scientists actively participating are distributed among many basic science and clinical departments and utilize the Center's five Core units, thereby establishing scientific collaborations. The scientific Core units are: 1) Intestinal Microbiology, which provides service by culturing gastrointestinal pathogenic microorganisms and purifying their toxins and other proteins involved in pathogenesis, 2) Molecular Biology, a research and training Core involved in the cloning and characterization of gastrointestinal hormones and their receptors, 3) Cell Culture, a core providing eukaryotic cells as a service, and providing training and research in cell biology and in the newer techniques of retroviral immortalization, and 4) a Fluorescent Probe core which has a fluorescent microscope and spectrophotometer to study the regulation of intestinal and hepatocyte membranes and intracellular processes. A fifth core is the Administrative Core which is responsible for daily operation of the Center. On a competitive basis, GRASP awards pilot project funds to NEMC/Tufts investigators who are new to gastrointestinal research, or those already in the field but seeking a change in research direction. Small research projects supported by pilot project funds have culminated in numerous additional grant awards in digestive diseases research. GRASP has a major post-doctoral research training component, and all but a few of the PhD and MD trainees have entered academic careers. The center also provides continuing education in the form of conferences and seminars, and occasional workshops dealing with selected areas of gastroenterology.